Glories of Yog

Chapter 1 - Hath - Chakra - Penetration and Yog?

 So far as yogic achievements are concerned one has to pass  through the turmoil of the thought waves, or flickerings of the mind. How then the physical exercises and various Mudras and postures have become Yog? Nobody can go on practicing the Asanas all the time without losing a second. The Geeta does not speak of Yog as physical exercise. According to the Geeta – Yog is a continual, unbroken process. Maharishi Patanjali says – Sa Tu Dirghkal Narentarya Satkara Asevito Dashdbhumih &By long continuous and devoted practice, yog gets strongly grounded. No practice of asanas is to be done. What is to be done is the practice of the jap of OM and meditation on God, what is the fruit of Yog? Establishment in the prestine form of the all witnessing soul. Nothing except this is Yog. All those practices which ensue different results and have different attributes can never be Yog.

 Now we try to find out how physical activities in Yog got introduced in place of mental activities? From where various Asanas entered into Yog? Mahatmas used to worship and practice Yog in dense forest at solitary places and lived on only fruits and roots of plants. Such places were generally the breeding grounds of a number of diseases. Lagat Ati Pahad Kar Pani. Vipin Vipati  Nahi Jai Bakhani The climate of the hills affects adversely, the problems and difficulties of forest – life are beyond descriptions. The hilly water generally is not suitable for health. There are so many inconveniences in forest – life and words can not express them. Besides the problem of living in midst of snakes, scorpions, lions, bears, rhinoceros, elephants and different kinds of insects, there are big mosquitoes and their fatal stings on account of which the devotees fall sick of malaria, liver complaints, typhoid, stomach ache within four to six months. The fever stays for months. The mind of the devotees which was to be fixed on God, now starts contemplating on the ills of the body. The problem is how to remain healthy at such places? If somehow the health recovered, the devotees again within four to six months fall sick.

 Men have very limited time in life and if it is wasted in fighting with the diseases how and when the practice and Sadhana would start and move?

 Medical facilities in ancient days were not so at hand as they are today. In distant forests they were absolutely not available. For this reason the Mahatmas started sparing some time for those physical exercises which keep the body fit and ward off the  diseases like constipation and its concommitant ills. Yog Karat Rog Barat Kathin Udhyo, Hum Na Karab!Gopis while complaining to Uddhava say that Yog is very tough, it gives birth to diseases. This is really very true because Bhajan depends on the ebb and flow of breath. The name of the Lord is chanted in four ways – first loudly (Vaikhari), thereafter with low sound (Madhyama) then mentally (Pashyanti) and at last through para or transcendental state.

 Vaikhry is called that way of chanting the name in which the sound is loud and audible to others nearby. Madhyama means the sound which is not audible to others, only the devotee who chants the name, hears it and understands it. Pashyanti is the advance stage in which the mind’s eye is concentrated on the flow of breathing and the devotee watches closely when the breath is inhaled, how much time it stays inside and when it is exhaled. The mind is ordained to stand as witness to the jap of the name. In the matured state of Pashyanti which is called Vipashyana, the name gets activated concurrently with the observation of breathing. Effortlessly it all happens. Once the meditation starts, it goes on unbroken. When the power to witness the process of breathing is achieved, the devotee enters into para – state or transcendental state. At such a time the motion of the breath becomes very slow. If generally you breathe four times in a minute, in the para state you breathe only once. It is the breath which purifies the blood. If it becomes slow, the circulation of blood also becomes slow. When the circulation of blood in the veins, arteries and the muscles of the body is slow a number of diseases afflict the body. To redeem Sadhana from any break, the Mahapurushas discovered Neti, Dhauti, Asanas and Physical Acrobatics.